How many clones of Hipstamatic are there now? I lost count. They pop up like mushrooms, but none among them is really up to their source of inspiration. The problem is more than a developer thinks it doesn’t take much to successfully imitate Hipstamatic. Imitating is not the path to choose if you want to make a truly good impression, but of course it saves lots of time and you might be able to fool more than a few users.
Retro Camera Plus — not to be confused with RetroCamera — is another of these countless Hipstamatic’s little sisters. We must admit the idea, although it is quite worn out, still has some fascination.
Main Features
- Up to a resolution of 1200 x 1387 pixels;
- Five cameras for a total of nine different effects (filters and borders);
- Share via email, Twitter and Facebook.
Appotography Opinion
With Retro Camera Plus you have access to five different presets simulating five different old-school cameras. Four of these cameras let you choose among color and black and white (actually just a greyscale version of the color filter). You cannot use photos from your camera roll, as with other hipstamatic-ish apps; you are supposed to choose the filter you want to apply and shoot right away. The effects achieved are pretty good, but none really stands out.
Here’s a preview of how the different filters affect images.
The Bärbl
The Little Orange Box
The Xolaroid 2000
The Pinhole Camera
The FudgeCan
There are quite a few problems if you try to take more shots one after the other or if you open the prints gallery while the image is still being processed. The app crashed more than a few times during our testing with the latest OS . The browsing among images stored in the app’s gallery is also not as fluid and functional as it should be. Fixing these problems, adding a few features, like for example the possibility for a double exposure with the Pinhole Camera, and refining a bit the b&w filters, would definitely bring the app on another level.
The app is free, so you might as well try it if you are curious.
Overall
Name: Retro Camera Plus
Developer: Urbian, Inc.
Compatibility: iPhone, iPod Touch. iOS 4.1 or later.
Price: free!
Vote: 3/5
I like this app!
It adds soul to the pictures you take, kind of.
I prefer using this app over the standard camera app on my Galaxy S2, only for that reason. Even if it reduces the resolution, and adds weird color bleeding effects.
It’s kind of recreates the Lomo fascination on an ordinary cell phone. 🙂
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